


Where Are They Now

by mousapelli



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Takeda as the Little Giant, letting a thing go on so long it's way too embarrassing to take it back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-11 01:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12312135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mousapelli/pseuds/mousapelli
Summary: It's supposed to be a joke, but when his students fail entirely to realize he's the Little Giant, Takeda is too embarrassed to clear it up. Ukai is never going to let him live it down.





	Where Are They Now

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO 2017, Bonus Round 1: "AU where Takeda is actually the Little Giant (remember when this was a theory?)"

At first it's kind of a joke, or it was supposed to be one, Takeda asking cutely for the second year to explain some entirely mundane volleyball point. He'd thought he was being obviously sarcastic, but apparently his reputation did not precede him nearly as much as he'd thought, since the second year proceeds to earnestly explain half the rules of volleyball to him. Takeda at first had wanted to turn to someone else and demand "Just how old am I?!" but there's no other adults present with Coach Ukai out of commission.

"Understand?" the second year asks. Takeda sighs internally; the kid looks so earnest Takeda can't bring himself to explain.

"Yes, thank you, Sawamura-kun," Takeda said, faking a smile, then rolling his eyes to the ceiling as Sawamura trots off to join the other first years waiting for him at the sidelines. Then it becomes a thing, Sawamura and Sugawara and even flustered Azumane explaining various points to him during games and matches, and it's all Takeda can do to smile and say thank, way too awkward at this point to admit that _nobody had to explain the rotation rules to the goddamned Little Giant._

The first time it happens in front of Ukai, the new Ukai, Takeda's so used to it that it doesn't even register as a thing until Ukai's grin gets wider and wider, creepier and creepier.

"Are you kidding me?" Ukai hisses as soon as Kiyoko trots off.

"Here we go," Takeda sighs, glancing around to make sure no one's in earshot.

"Are you KIDDING me?!" Ukai demands, and then he plants his hands on his knees and laughs uproariously for about thirty seconds before his smoker's lung catches up with him and he has a karmically-well-deserved coughing fit. "Oh my god," Ukai manages eventually, scrubbing at his wet eyes with the heel of his hand. "They don't even know who you are!"

"It just happened!" Takeda protests, turning cutely pink at another adult witnessing his shame. "Sawamura said some stuff, I said some stuff, I thought we were doing a bit!"

"Sensei," Ukai grins, sharp and so amused that Takeda colors even pinker, "I'm not even sure that Sawamura-kun knows what doing a bit is."

"All right, fair," Takeda grumbles, hoping to just hide behind his clipboard for the rest of practice.

Ukai needles him about it every now and again, and Takeda very pleasantly tells him to fuck off. They're something like friends, or like the kind you make on a sports team before you are actually friends where it's made mostly of how much time you spend together and how closely together the pressure is crushing you. They're the kind of friends who get drunk together during training camp, and when Takeda sneaks out back to get some cool air against his flushed face, Ukai eventually follows when Takeda doesn't come back.

Takeda is tossing a volleyball to himself against the wall, a drill he hasn't lost the knack of even though he's long since quit playing. It goes high toss, slam against the wall, receive the bounce off the ground to toss it high again, repeat. Takeda hears the _schuff_ of Ukai's sneakers across the wet grass behind him, the click and flare of Ukai's lighter.

"Wanna know a secret, sensei?" Ukai asks.

"Sure," Takeda asks without breaking his rhythm.

"I mighta had just the tiniest crush on you back in high school."

Takeda grips the ball this time when it comes back to him, the slap of it clean against his palms. He looks over his shoulder and can barely make out Ukai's face, except where the red glow of the cigarette is highlighting the corner of his smile. "Is that so?"

"It's just that I was always on the bench, and the view from behind you is pretty nice," Ukai confesses. Takeda laughs, cheeks already too flushed from drinking for it to feel embarrassing. "Think you can still jump?"

"I might need a few tips on my form from the new coach," Takeda teases back, spinning the ball between his palms. "Hey. Toss for me?" He launches the ball at Ukai from his fingertips, startling him into dropping his cigarette.

"All right, all right," Ukai says, like it's a chore, but the toss he sends up is high and clean, Ukai's control sharpened by weeks of setting for the kids. It's a toss just the way Takeda likes them, so there's nothing he can do except for take three steps of a running start before he launches himself up to meet it.


End file.
